Had the beef stew today for lunch. Not bad....pretty good, but no where close to the chilli!

I find these restricted Lunches are harder as sometimes that bar is my saving grace during the day when I just need a little bit (I do 1/2 bar at a time) but according to plan I can have both the restricted lunch and the bar (right?)....not sure which way to go at the moment.

Sorry, RJC, but you can only have one restricted item per day. Of course, if you're only having 1/2 a bar for the day, I guess it wouldn't really have enough carbs in it to count as a restricted item. Then again, it also wouldn't have enough protein in it to count as one of your IP packets.

To Julie & Livybugs...welcome! I just joined this site and everyone is great! I too have only begun and I'm in my 4th week. I just am trying to stay busy, not think to much about it and take it one day at a time... My coach said if I really felt like I had to cheat to have one of their "white foods". BTW the Choc drink is AWESOME if after you make it you put it in a mug and heat it in the wave...HOT CHOC!

MuayThaiGoddess -
I cannot believe that your little love put a cookie in your diet rite! By the way, I haven't had Diet Rite Tangerine since it came out around 2004, but I really liked it then. And I don't even like soda! It's nice that you ran out in the middle of the night, invisible siren flashing, to go get some of it! I think your son knows you are on a diet because he knew you wanted a cookie and couldn't have one so he "hid" it from you. Awwww, he's such a sweetie. Love your comment "I love that boy like rap stars love money, he's all the sugar and honey I need!" It warms my heart.

Awesome research on the muscles healing and water retention. Do you think it applies to therapy too? I thank my lucky stars that I am on this diet because I got a SpineCor brace on Feb 18. First of all, it's the tightest article of clothing that you can think of, it has a bunch of straps and these little shorts where you velcro them on. So of course in between the straps any extra minuscule amount of fat that one has will get pushed out between them. Also not a lot of room in the stomach for food since the shorts have these straps that have to be tightened for the support. Anyway, I think I have a need of more protein since the brace is pulling my body every which way that it doesn't want to go due to scoliosis, and I'm always aching. Been going to the chiropractor more though, so that's a plus! The brace is supposed to help unwind the crooked back (although only to a small extent in adults since we're not growing anymore) and it's supposed to help retrain the muscles to hold my spine in place better, and to hold my whole body in the correct placement (somewhat like good posture). Wow my back muscles and shoulder muscles are smarting every single day! I think if I wasn't eating all this extra protein, I might not be able to take it! And I have to drink about a gallon of water a day just to feel normal. The dr told me that I'd need more water and that I would get sick if I didn't drink a lot. The whole nervous system is changing on me! Whew! Sometimes I get random stabbing pains that cause me to stop what I'm doing and cry out. My boyfriend must think I'm totally nuts! Wish there was a support group as awesome as this forum for Spinecor for adults.

I now think of myself as Sgt. Sparkles! That's awesome! I'm a Sgt covered in glitter though. My bf went for his weigh in and lost 4 pounds. He wasn't too happy with it, and thought maybe he should go back after he got home to get re-weighed. He wasn't sure if he had taken his heavy wallet and iphone out of his pocket. I told him he would make a bad woman because I would weigh in naked if they let me. Or just wearing undergarments I guess. I always go to the bathroom directly before. Heck I even take the padding out of my bra so as not to skew the measurement (ack! lost 4.5 inches off the bust anyway). Also he can't find his sheet where all the measurements are written so he doesn't really know how many inches he's lost. He's a lost case sometimes. I told him to get an iphone application for tracking weight/measurements or to use fitday.com. I just figured out you can put in your measurements in the Body section yesterday!

Sorry I didn't write you back yesterday but I couldn't sleep again when my insomnia reared its ugly head on Sunday night. Just laid in bed forever. So I didn't let myself get online last night hoping I would sleep. And I slept! Woot! Zzzzzzz...

Good luck on the weigh in today! I hope your son doesn't put a cookie in your pocket! The little dear. I think I may have hyped up the diet too much to my bf - I told him men lose 5-7 pounds a week and he's lost 5.8 pounds and 4 pounds. Oh well. I just figured of course he would start and then he'd lose way more than me in like a week! There's so many factors at work in our bodies, we can't all possibly have the same loss numbers. Just like how your coach hyped you up for big big losses! 5 pounds is fantastic I think! I only had a 5 pound loss one week, the first week. Well, it was 6.4 but...

Oh and you asked me if I have cheated in my 55 days on IP (make it 56 today). I have not cheated. I have stuck to the plan and made do when I had to. The first week I went with my bf to his company holiday party and they had grilled fish and steamed veggies. The veggies of course were mostly carrots, with some broccoli. It was the only thing I could eat so I ate it. Pretty sure the veggies had some butter on them because it didn't taste right to me. Also there was pre-mixed salad there that had some kind of dressing on it which I think had Balsamic Vinegar in it? I ate that too because my stomach was so empty by the time we ate at 9:30pm! Cocktail hour was before that of course, and I LOVE wine. Not being able to drink their awesome selection of wine was sad. But I got over it. I've been wine free now going on 9 weeks! And I've been going out to happy hour with work people and concerts too, and I just drink my water happy as a clam! I hid a box of girl scout cookies in my drawer at work (back of the filing cabinet). I ordered them pre-IP and my coworker delivered them to me during my 3rd or 4th week on IP. I hid them and forgot about them until yesterday. They were calling my name from the drawer, those little stinkers! Those cute little girls, why can't they sell crudites such as cucumbers and broccoli with some Walden Farms dip? Why must they sell cookies, our sworn enemy? But I will not cheat because I am stubborn. This diet is expensive and I don't want to have to spend more for a darn cookie. Also I felt TERRIBLE the first few weeks and I don't want to have to go through that again - hang in there! That's the main motivation really. Also I don't want to write it down in the food journal because then I will feel like I've failed. That being said, if anyone cheats, just pick yourself up and get back on the wagon with all of us! Fix it right away, not later. Don't want anyone to feel bad just because I'm such a stubborn person about it. You can recover and drink some water and get on with your diet. I have dreamed about cheating on the diet and I've eaten some pretty yummy things in my dreams. Also I laughed long and hard about someone on here who posted that they were eating a baguette with butter in their dream. Bwah ha ha!

Have a good day everyone! Gosh I'd better get moving or I'll be late to work! Oh how I love my morning cup of coffee.

Hey sparkles! I'm finally replying to this post, but i think you would have gotten it sooner by the pony express.

I think I already replied to some of it in my other post last night. but i really sympathize with you having to wear that spine-cor brace. I bet that puts your body under alot of stress. how long have you had to wear it? Is it helping with your scoliosis? I HATE wearing tight things (I might point out myy lovely wardrobe of velvet sweat suits- ha!) and that would srive me nuts! Do you go to a regular chiropractor or have you ever heard of upper cervial? You must let me know.

That is inspiring that you have never cheated. It motivates me to keep going, and to not cheat. On my third week and no cheats- yay. I did chew up a couple bites of a cookie once and spit it out and just about gargled with bleach to get all the sugar out- didn't do that again. I was very close to cheating a couple times the first two weeks but it seems that feeling has passed thank God, now I am just dealing with headaches galore, fatigue, and that weird tingly, pins and needles and body parts going numb. Yesterday m neck went numb and it felt like my back and skull and arms were on vibrate- it was very uncomfortable- I had an additional packet of IP and water as salty as the Mediterranean, and nothing seemed to help. Oh well, I'm glad I don't have it today but seriously dread it coming back. i don't like feeling like a vibrating chair, I feel like my skin is about to crawl off until it goes numb. Fun stuff.

I'm glad your boyfriend is making progress and I think before his next weigh in you need to give him a check list : go to bathroom (check) empty pockets (check) super light clothes (check) take off shoes (check) remove padding from bra (che... oh wait forget that last one.. ha!! But seriously everything makes a difference and if he is not getting measured, you two should get a little body measurer and keep track of it yourselves- its something else to be excited about and keep track of. Also, I'm getting on to my coach about not having something to measure body fat because I think that is one of the most important things to keep track of, as we are not losing muscle (or not supposted to) and that should also be something else steadily going down and to rejoice in. Do you have one at your clinic?

Haha!! Yes, those little girl scouts must have trained my son to insert the cookie in my drink, I will have to keep a close eye on them. I guess they are like special forces for the kids world. With the cookies in your drawer, why don't you give them out? i love giving things away! It makes other people happy and me happy too and I can enjoy it and not eat it, but maybe you want to hold onto them, I don'tknow- but thats what I thought of. Amazzing that you forgot about them!

Alright, well I have to answer your other post and someothers as i am way behind.... i feel like I am turning my work in late at school! ha!

Have a good day! And good job at your weigh in PHASE THREE AND YOU LOST WEIGHT! THAT IS SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE! Remember you usually gain. You go you disciplined girl, or Sarg I should say!

MuayThaiGoddess-there are two things that have been in the back of my mind that are concerns regarding IP. I have been told numerous times by professionals that we should never eat below our basal metabolic rate- BMR.
Mine is well over 1,000 calories a day. Yes I understand the burning fat and ketosis stuff but still, is this ok?... which leads me to my second point. In the doc's book, he talks about being on this diet for a maximum of something like 6 weeks. I am planning on doing it until July! 5 months! Can that be healthy??? I will ask these questions next time I go and I'll be interested to hear what you find out too.

Okay Hopeful tricia and others wwho were interested in my concern about such a low calorie diet-- I have done some research and am not complete but I found enough that I felt like I wanted to post a Part I to get something out there. As far as being on such a LOW calorie diet and being very low below your BMR or RMR (resting metabolic rate) for that matter... there is ALOT of conflicting research and opinions but alot of things that I have read and make sense (as i have said this is just part I) is that of course if you are well into ketosis your body is releasing Free Fatty Acid stores which are released into the blood stream and send to the liver to be burned which generates more ketones... which is why it is important we do have ketones (but ketostix are not always accurate so don't freak out if you are trace or something) but anyways getting to the point... they say that actually your body is getting alot more calories from your fat stores and you can calculate this simply. Lets say last week, I genrally took in 500 calories a day( EXTREMELY LOW) but I lost six pounds of body fat. Each pound of body fat has 3,500 calories. So you multiply 6 X 3,500= 21,000 calories for the week in stored body fat. divide that by 7 ( for days in the week) 21,000/7=3,000. So that would be an additional (averaged) 3,000 calories a day I am getting from my fat stores in calories. Add 3,000 plus the 500 I am eating that would put me around 3,500 a day. Which would be healthy and plausable. Now, there are simple calculations to get the amount of calories you should have a day ( a much more complex one) or a simpler one that comes out to much the same which is your weight in pounds multiplied by 15 (if you are female) or 16 (if you are male) if you are getting enough calories from your weight loss to support that from pounds lost and what you have ingested- or come close I would think you would be okay. If you are not losing at all, I'm not sure but I would be a little worried I think because your body would NOT be getting additional calories. This is my findings so far, I can go further into detail with some of the scientific formula's etc but I tried to keep it very simple to understand. I found this on various websites, studies, books etc, and it seems to make sense to me. This is just the beginning but I wanted to report back to my fellow troopers!! Let me know what you think, or if you have questions comments, know soomething else, more research- i'd love to know. I'M A RESEARCH-AHOLIC.!!

To Julie & Livybugs...welcome! I just joined this site and everyone is great! I too have only begun and I'm in my 4th week. I just am trying to stay busy, not think to much about it and take it one day at a time... My coach said if I really felt like I had to cheat to have one of their "white foods". BTW the Choc drink is AWESOME if after you make it you put it in a mug and heat it in the wave...HOT CHOC!

Hey everyone!! I have so much catching up to do with reading all of your posts but just wanted to check in. WF PB & J was okay.. I put it on the crepes and folded four triangles... it was a nice change. I have been having 1 restricted item a day (i'm in college and working and sometimes eatting a bar for lunch is easy) and still have kept up the average of 3 lbs/wk. I feel like this diet has made me strong! I no longer worry about making the right choice, I trust myself! It's an amazing feeling... i've also had to buy all new pants!!!! I'll be in Chicago this weekend and Austing in 2 weeks for work conventions and i'm a little nervous about all the traveling, I just don't trust going out to eat, I always end up ordering a plain salad and trying to make myself something later. Congrats to everyone for all the losses and NSV's!!!

Thanks MauyThaiGoddess I want to believe it is all good because I really love this diet. I try not to think about how well it is going and just take a day at a time.
What you said makes sense-- and explains why I really am not very hungry. That's the part that baffles me really. How are we eating such a low number of calories and not starving?? I have done diets where I've eaten a whole lot more and couldn't get through the day without a cheat.
So, it's great to think our bodies are eating away all that fat! Right now I am staring at 2 Easter baskets I just made. Not even tempted to touch the homemade Chocolate Easter bunnies...gotta love this diet. And I haven't had dinner yet either! In other words, it's the time of day when we are hungriest...bring on the veggies.

Hello everyone! I am on week two of the IP diet, and I am struggling =(
I am either hungry, or I eat extra protein and don't lose weight. It is day 9 and I have only lost 3 pounds! I feel like I have given up so much - and 3 pounds?!

I have to say thanks to everyone though, because reading everyone's stories is very encouraging and makes me want to keep going!

Don't cheat!!! This diet is based on your body working a certain way based on the plan. If your hungry, Try hot tea. I love the Celestial Seasons because they make wonderful flavors that are decaff, no cal, no fat, no carb. Add legal sweetner if you need to. If you absolutely have to have an extra something then have an extra white. NO EXTRA PROTEIN. No exercise. Drink 1/2 your body weight in water. EXAMPLE: if you weigh 200 lbs drink 100 oz of water (including what you make the food with). Take your supplements.....AND what ever you do, Don't give up!!!! You can do this, if I can anyone can!!! Keep us all posted.

Hello everyone! I am on week two of the IP diet, and I am struggling =(
I am either hungry, or I eat extra protein and don't lose weight. It is day 9 and I have only lost 3 pounds! I feel like I have given up so much - and 3 pounds?!

I have to say thanks to everyone though, because reading everyone's stories is very encouraging and makes me want to keep going!

Quote:

Originally Posted by BevS

What are white foods?

I was given a sheet that has what are IP foods are in the category of white, green & blue foods. The blue I don't think I can even have in Phase 1. White food...The drinks, the puddings, the soups, the jello (except you are only suppose to have the jello and the blueberry/cranberry/pomegranate drink every 3rd day according to my coach)
The bars, the chips, the chili, crepes, choc pancake are examples of green foods. Phase 1 2 whites and 1 green a day plus veggies, lettuce & 5 oz meat (7oz fish).

Had the beef stew today for lunch. Not bad....pretty good, but no where close to the chilli!

I find these restricted Lunches are harder as sometimes that bar is my saving grace during the day when I just need a little bit (I do 1/2 bar at a time) but according to plan I can have both the restricted lunch and the bar (right?)....not sure which way to go at the moment.

What is restricted lunch??? The bar is only a once a day thing. So if by restricted you mean like having the beef stew and a bar then no that is having 2 restricted foods in a day.

I was given a sheet that has what are IP foods are in the category of white, green & blue foods. The blue I don't think I can even have in Phase 1. White food...The drinks, the puddings, the soups, the jello (except you are only suppose to have the jello and the blueberry/cranberry/pomegranate drink every 3rd day according to my coach)
The bars, the chips, the chili, crepes, choc pancake are examples of green foods. Phase 1 2 whites and 1 green a day plus veggies, lettuce & 5 oz meat (7oz fish).

Gotcha. I think a lot of our coaches say restricted and unrestricted. The drinks, puddings, soups, jello are unrestricted. The others are restricted and should be used sparingly (the actual amount varies from coach to coach it appears). I guess by that system my coach told me to eat all white food, if possible. I carry a bar in my purse though for "emergencies."

Its been crazy the last week or so. Took me a long time to catch up on everything that's been happening. Congrats to everyone on all their weight loss success and their NSV success.

I had my first weigh in on Friday and only lost 2 pounds. My doc said I wasn't in ketosis yet? I didn't understand b/c I follow everything to a T. Amazing considering I was on vacation my first 6 days of the program and then at a charity event surrounded by deserts and pasta for the next 3 days.

I noticed a lot of people here have trouble with salad dressing so buy those walden farms deals. I wanted to let you all know salad dressing is really easy to make at home - then you can have unlimited variety without having a ton of any one flavor. The key is 3 parts oil to 1 part acid. Then any spices etc you want are just bonus. I like to add fresh herbs as well as spices.
Ex. 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice + sea salt, pepper
3 tbsp EVOO, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar + sea salt, pepper, mustard
3 tbsp grape seed oil, 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar + basil, paprika, sea salt, pepper
Then you put the acid, spices, herbs, salt, and pepper to your blender. Mix it all up good. Then drizzle your oil in while your blender is on. This emulsifies the mixture so it won't separate when you put it in the fridge for a few days.

This week I made a spicy cilantro dressing and a spinach pesto dressing.
The first was hot pepper, cilantro, cucumber, EVOO, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper. The second was spinach (blanched first to keep it from turning brown in the fridge), basil, EVOO, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper.

I'm going to have to try some of those great recipes involving the IP packs. You all are so creative!!

Wow sorry for the crazy long post!

Would love to have your receipes for stir fry, grilled asparagus, stuffed cabbage rolls...are you a chef???
I'm new to the site so it won't let me give you my email.Please post for all of us if you have the time.

I am struggling a little though. I am now on my 7th week and have lost a total of 17.4 lbs. The problem is, I am not averaging out to 3lbs a week at all. I really wanted to reach my goal weight (or 26.6lbs more) by my birthday in May. How likely do you guys think it might be at this rate?